Throughout the world markets, including in the United States, many millions of toils of poultry are raised and slaughtered for commercial sale annually. For the vast majority of commercially raised poultry, the animals (e.g., chickens, turkeys, specialty hens, and the like) are raised by contract growers and then transported to processing facilities where the poultry is slaughtered and then processed for sale (e.g. de-feathered, eviscerated, and butchered). Typically, prior art de-feathering operations, the bird carcasses are first scalded with high temperature water (to aid in the removal of feathers) and then transported through a “picking” line. A conventional picking line, as is employed prolifically throughout the United States and the world, utilizes a conveying system by which poultry carcasses are carried between batteries of rotating picking disks or drums having rubber picking fingers extending therefrom. As the carcasses traverse the picking line, the rubber fingers strike the bird carcasses (as they rotate mounted on the rotating picking disks or drums) and bind the feathers, thereby removing them as the carcass continues its passage.
Although the prior art apparatus and process have been employed throughout the industry for many years, various drawbacks of the prior art have been discovered to exist. In this regard, the rubber picking fingers used for binding the feathers of the poultry during de-feathering operations (employed on the rotating picking disks and/or drums) are prone to cracking and/or forming microscopic holes (i.e. micro-poring) which can harbor bacteria. Because poultry carcasses passes through a picking line sequentially, if a given “finger” or set of “fingers” is contaminated, then it is possible that bacteria will be passed to each carcass which contacts that finger or set of fingers thereafter. For these reasons, strict operation guidelines have been established, in accordance with United States Department of Agriculture laws and regulations, to ensure that contamination of picking lines is minimized (so that contaminated meat is not sold to consumers). For example, in order to prevent and/or decrease contamination risk, typical industry guidelines mandate that the picking line be shut down periodically for cleaning (e.g., twice a day). During these cleanings, there is significant downtime in which poultry carcasses cannot be processed thus reducing plant efficiency. Furthermore, when bacteria penetrates cracks or pores in the rubber fingers, it is difficult and time consuming to complete adequate decontamination/sterilization using conventional methods.
As a further drawback, conventional rubber picking fingers are relatively large in diameter and thus have substantial mass per unit of length. For this reason, in a conventional picking line, prior art fingers strike poultry carcasses with considerable force and are prone to damaging the carcasses and/or reducing yield e.g. breaking the commercially valuable wings and/or causing the fat of the carcass to be expelled from beneath the skin of the bird. When fat is removed from the carcass, the effective yield of the carcass is decreased (i.e. because poultry is sold by weight). In fact, as much as ½ to 2 percent yield is lost due to picker finger design alone. In this regard, due to the sheer volume of poultry processed, losses amounting to as little as ¼ percent yield have an economic impact to a processing plant which approaches millions of dollars per year.
Although U.S. Pat. No. 6,918,825 (“the '825 patent”), entitled Poultry De-Feathering Apparatus and Method, issued to Everett T. Conaway and co-owned herewith, exemplifies vast improvements over rubber picking finger-type designs, additional improvements on the technology disclosed in the '825 patent are desired.
For example, because conventional rubber picking finger-type picking lines employ complex, expensive machinery which is not easily replaced or reconfigured (and operational downtimes of picking lines result in significant economic loss), it would desirable to have the capability to utilize the elongated picking elements described in the '825 patent without requiring extensive retooling and/or reconfiguration of existing picking line machinery. In this regard, it would be desirable to have an inexpensive and/or rapid and/or efficient manner for converting such conventional machinery to use elongated picking elements and/or elongated picking element bundles.
Additionally, improvements in the manner of connecting picking structures (e.g., including elongated picking elements such as described in the '825 patent as well as other types) to conventional picking disks are desired. For example, the vast majority of rubber picking finger-type designs are configured to be installed through the back of the picking disk. However, as installed in a picking line, the rear surfaces of the picking disks are difficult and sometimes dangerous to access because, at least in part, of limited working space behind the picking disks combined with the proximity to complex moving machinery.
In view of the above enumerated drawbacks and/or desires for improvements in the art, it is a purpose of the herein described invention to address one or more of such drawbacks and/or desires as well as, or in the alternative, other needs (such as improved feather picking abilities and/or efficiency) which will become more apparent to the skilled artisan once given the present disclosure.